U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics, http://www.usglobec.org/) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea. The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently has major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska).

U.S. GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS, GEORGES BANK

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Program is a large multidisciplinary multi-year oceanographic effort. The proximate goal is to understand the population dynamics of key species on the Bank - Cod, Haddock, and two species of zooplankton - in terms of their coupling to the physical environment and in terms of their predators and prey. The ultimate goal is to be able to predict changes in the distribution and abundance of these species as a result of changes in their physical and biotic environment as well as to anticipate how their populations might respond to climate change.

The effort is substantial, requiring -broad-scale surveys of the entire Bank, and -process studies which focus both on -the links between the target species and their physical environment, and -the determination of fundamental aspects of these species' life history (birth rates, growth rates, death rates, etc).

Equally important are the modelling efforts that are ongoing which seek to provide realistic predictions of the flow field and which utilize the life history information to produce an integrated view of the dynamics of the populations.